Bartholomaeus Eustachius (1520-1574) performing an anatomical dissection before several observers, in an anatomy theatre decorated with an articulated skeleton. Engraving, 1722, after P. L. Ghezzi, 1714.

This vignette on the title page to the Amsterdam 1722 edition of Bartholomaeus Eustachius's anatomical plates with commentary by Giovanni Maria Lancisi was designed by Pier Leone Ghezzi and originally appeared in the first edition of the complete Eustachian plates, published in Rome in 1714. It depicts the sixteenth-century Italian anatomist Eustachius performing a dissection in an anatomy theatre. The cadaver, whose thorax and abdomen have been dissected, is similar to the ninth plate of the Tabulæ anatomicæ (see catalogue no. 26006). In front of the table are piled the bodies of a dog, monkey, pig, etc., animals regularly used in the sixteenth century to demonstrate anatomy and physiology. On a pedestal on the right is an articulated skeleton set in an oratorical pose. Although the print is described in Choulant/Frank (p. 202) as a reverse of the 1714 original, it is actually in the same direction. Eustachius had planned a large illustrated book on anatomy but died in 1574 before seeing it to press. The Papal physician, Lancisi, discovered the surviving plates, only eight of which had been previously published by Eustachius, and supplied the missing text for their publication in 1714